Traction system for package-trucks.



Patented Feb. 18, 1919.

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F. E. LAMMERT & L. HARTMAN. TRACTION SYSTEM FOR PACKAGE TRUCKS. APPLICATION FILED our. 23, my. 1,294,818.

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F. E. LAMMERT & L. HA'RTMAN. TRACTION sYsH;

M FOR PACKAGE TRUCKS.

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F. E. LAMMERT & L. HARTMAN. T .cnom SYSTEM FOR PACKAGE TRUCKS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 23, I917.

Patented Feb. 18, 1919.

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F. E. LAIVIMERT & I HARTMAN. TRACTION SYSTEM FOR PACKAGE TRU CKS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 23. I9I7- Patented Feb. 18,1919.

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FERDINAND E. LAMIVIERT AND LOUIS HARTMAN,. OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOBS TO LAMMERT AND MANN COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ACORPOBATION OF ILLINOIS.

TRACTION SYSTEM FOR PACKAGE-TRUCKS Patented Feb. 18, 1919.

Application filed October 23, 1917. Serial No. 198,088.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FERDINAND ERNEST LAMMERT and LOUIS HARTMAN, citizens of the United States, and residents of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Traction Systems for Package-Trucks, of which the following is a specification,

The object of our invention is to provide a simple, efficient means for moving trucks about in warehouses, stores and other places where package goods of various kinds are assembled, distributed and arranged for shipping and the invention is set forth in the claims.

Our invention relates to devices for drawing the ordinary warehouse trucks around a determined route or course through the building or region where goods are to be received or delivered and the traction device is intended to move sufiiciently slow to permit a truck to be coupled up and uncoupled from the traction carrier without stopping the carrier or traction device.

At any desired place along the route of the carrier a truck may be connected and disconnected as desired and switched aside, as it were, for loading and unloading.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a planof the route of a traction carrier.

Fig. 2' is a side elevation of the carrier shown in plan in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan of the driving mechanism shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged elevation of the driving mechanism shown in Fig. 2 and on the same scale as that of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a plan and Fig. 6 is an elevation of a slightly modified form of the mechanism'shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

Fig. 7 is a section through the supporting rail of the carrier on line 77 on Fig. 4.

Fig. 8 is an elevation of the details shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a plan section through the carrier cable on line 99 of- Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a cross sectional elevation showing one of the ceiling brackets that supports the carrier rail.

Fig. 11 is a plan and Fig. 12 an elevation of the sprocket chain used to drive the carrier.

Fig. 13 shows the hook end of the truck coupling chains.

In the drawings 1 indicates the ceiling or the supporting means overhead to which there is secured a series of hangers 2 which support a series of brackets 3 which in turn support a carrier rail 4.

The carrier rail 4 extends as it were in an endless line around through the entire route to be served by the traction device.

Mounted upon this carrier rail 4 there is a series of carriages or trolleys 6 provided with rollers 7 riding on the top of rail 4 and with a. roller 8 underneath the rail in a manner to maintain the trolley carriage 6 always in position on the rail 4 through the medium of the flanges 9 on the rollers.

An endless cable 10 is secured to the several trolley carriages 6 and extends around the entire system in the neutral axis regionv of the carrier rail 4 and this maintains and moves the several trolleys 6 in conformity with its own movement.

Secured at the bottom of the trolley 6 there are connecting chains 11 adapted to be connected by hooks 12 or any other suitable means to the handles 13 of package trucks 51 or to the top rail of trucks 14.

The trolleys 6 and their connecting chains 11 are located at such distances from each other on the cable 10 and rail 4 as may be desired to serve the needs of the work to be done by the traction system.

The cable 10 is securely clamped to the trolley frame 6 at the point 15 by means of the bolts 16 and clamping blocks 17 and the block 17 furnishes the' abutment or means of engagement of the mechanism which drives the cables around the carrier rail. This mechanism is in the form of a sprocket chain 19 provided with the engaging projections 20 on links at intervals apart in the chain corresponding to the spacing of the trolley carriages on the cable 10.

The sprocket chain 19 travels but a short distance in the company of the cable 9 as is indicated in Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the chain is trained over a driving sprocket 21, an idle sprocket 22 and by a guide sprocket 18. Apertures are made for short distances opposite the sprockets in the web of the carrier rail 4 which permits the chain 19 to enter to the embrace of the cable 10 and block 17 and travel therewith a suflicient distance to drive the cable together with the trolley carriages 6 as desired.

The driving sprocket 21 is driven by the shaft 23 driven by a beveled gear 24: which is engaged and driven by the pinion 25 on a shaft 26 driven by a sprocket 27 which in turn is driven by a chain 28 driven by a sprocket 29 on a shaft 30. The shaft 30 carries a worm wheel 31 inclosed in a housing 32 and driven by a worm 33 on a shaft 52 connected by the coupling 3% to the motor shaft 35 of the driving motor or source of power 36.

The worm wheels 31 and 33 reduces the speed of the motor as desired for the proper connection to the driving chain 19 which drives the cable and trolley. In place of the worm and worm wheel as indicated we may drive the mechanism as indicated in Figs. 5 and 6 wherein we use a belt wheel 37 on the motor shaft driving a belt 38 driving in turn a belt wheel 39 on a shaft 40 and the latter driving a sprocket 41 in turn driving a chain 42 which drives a sprocket 4C3 on a shaft a l which in turn carries and drives a small sprocket 4C5 driving a chain 46 which drives the sarocket 47 on a shaft 48 the latter corresponding to the shaft 26 shown in Figs. 3 and 45.

here the traction device is intended to carry more or less heavy loads causing considerable resistance to be overcome in pulling the trucks it is desirable to drive the cable 9 at more than one point or place in the system. In doing this we duplicate the driving sprocket chains 19 as is indicated by 4:59 in Fig. 5, but we still use the same source of power and simply extend the shaft 26 or the corresponding shaft as as indicated in Fig. 5 across to a duplicate set of gears and sprockets which drive a secondary chain a9 a duplicate of 19. When the system is long or inconvenient to connect across to the duplicate driving chain 19 we use independent driving units as shown in Fig. 1.

It is obvious that the driving mechanism may be located and duplicated around the route of the carrier as may be deemed necessary or desirable in any particular case.

Any suitable frame work may be provided upon which to support the motor reducing gearing and driving shafts and gearing as described and I have here shown such a frame work composed of cross and lengthwise members of sectional iron as indicated by frame work 50.

In passing the end curves of the route of the system there is encountered considerable lateral thrust on the trolley frames and to transmit this thrust wit-h little loss of power we use ball or roller end thrust bearings as shown by 53 in Fig. 7.

In cases where two separate driving units are used and connected up to the same source of power in the manner shown by Fig. 5 where the shaft 48 takes the place of shaft 26, there is then used a differential mechanism indicated by 5 for the purpose of balancing the power applied on the cable at the two different points.

What we claim is:

1. In a device of the class described, a can rier rail in channel form having its web mounted in a vertical plane and arranged to carry a series of trolleys around a given course; with a cable or endless driving mechanism carried by the trolleys and located within the region of the channel flanges and with a driving sprocket chain trained to travel in between the web of the channel and the driving cable and engage and drive the cable by means of blocks secured to the cable and engaged by the chain and with suitable driving means for driving the chain.

2. In a device of the class described, a carrier rail composed of a channel section with its web vertically arranged and supporting a series of trolleys riding on rollers running on the channel, a driving cable mounted in between the flanges of the channel and secured to the trolleys, means for driving the trolleys and cables and located and traveling along the web of the channel between the flanges, the said web cutaway at short intervals to permit the entr and exit of the driving means for the cable and means for driving said driving meansfor any suitable source of power.

3. In a device of the class described, a carrier rail in the form of a channel having its web vertically arranged, a series of trolleys mounted to ride on the channel through the medium of flanged rollers located on both top and bottom of the channel, a connecting cable connectin the several trolleys and secured to each of them by means of clamping blocks which clamp the cable to the trolley frame said blocks and cable located adjacent to the channel web, means traveling along the channel web for driving the cable, with connecting chains extending from the .trolleys and adapted to engage and move along a series of package trucks.

4. In a device of the class described, a trolley rail in the form of a channelhaving its web vertically arranged and extending around a continuous course, a series of trolleys mounted on the channel rail on the same side of the web as the channel flanges, a connecting driving means connecting the several trolleys together and located between the trolley frame and the web of the channel, means, for driving the connecting driving means entering thereto through the web of the channel, with means for connecting the several trolleys to trucks traveling on the floor beneath the carrier rail;

5. In a device of the class described, a trolley rail supported from the ceiling, a series of trolleys mounted on the rail and connected to each other by a flexible means, means for driving the trolleys as connected composed of a driving unit which travels with the trolleys and their connections for a short distance along the rail, worm gearing for driving the driving means and connecting them to a suitable source of power.

6. In a device of the class described, a trolley rail extending around a course in endless form, a series of trolleys mounted on the rail and connected to each other by a flexible endless connection, duplicate sets of driving means for driving the trolleys located at separated points around the trolley rail and connected across to each other independently of the flexible endless connection.

7. In a device of the class described, a flanged trolley carrier rail mounted around a continuous course, a series of trolleys mounted on the rail and connected together in an endless manner by flexible means, a series of suspended chains handling from the trolleys and adapted to engage package carriers, rollers fixed in the trolleys and adapted to engage the trolley rail 011 two sides thereof, anti friction members located in the trolley journals in a manner to take the lateral thrust of the load between the trolley frames and the trolley rollers.

8. In a device of the class described, a trolley rail supported from above and extending around a course in endless form, a series of trolleys mounted on the rail and connected to each other in a manner to form a continuous system around the trolley rail, de-

vices connected to the trolleys adapted to engage package carriers and move them.

through the course, duplicate sets of driving mounted from above and extending around a course in endless formation, a system of trolleys connected together and mounted on the rail in a continuous series around the course, duplicate sets of driving mechanism for driving the trolleys around the course each set located at different points on the course and each set composed of a sprocket chain which travels with the trolleys for atshort distance along their course, gearing for driving the sprocket chain and gearing for connecting the duplicate sets of driving sprocket chains together and a suitable source of power driving the whole; with devices attached to the individual trolleys for connecting to and moving the package carriers around the course.

Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook, and State of Illinois, this 18th day of October, 1917.

FERDINAND E. LAMMERT. LOUIS HARTMAN. Witnesses:

IVALTER L. TOBIAS, DONALD ROSIE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

